Next release alluded to here should be interesting as then we wade into the far more unknown waters of the seventies. Especially if they will release anything on Magnum.

I am becoming somewhat skeptical, if the MAGNUM/ORION geo SIGINT satellites were ever really named MAGNUM, as the recent declassified documents show a Subsatellite Ferret mission called MAGNUM. I had until now never found a hint on reuse of a codename.

Next release alluded to here should be interesting as then we wade into the far more unknown waters of the seventies. Especially if they will release anything on Magnum.

I am becoming somewhat skeptical, if the MAGNUM/ORION geo SIGINT satellites were ever really named MAGNUM, as the recent declassified documents show a Subsatellite Ferret mission called MAGNUM. I had until now never found a hint on reuse of a codename.

Itís the payload that seems to haveplayed a part in Falklandís war I am interested about. Though as that operated seemingly for an incredibly long time up until relatively recently maybe it will be excluded from declassification for now.

Next release alluded to here should be interesting as then we wade into the far more unknown waters of the seventies. Especially if they will release anything on Magnum.

There are many before that will have to be declassified, like RHYOLITE, CANYON, etc

Star One: also note that even for the POPPY series quite a number of facts are still classified. E.g., the final launch of the POPPY series (POPPY IX) was in December 1971, and the expected lifetime of this mission according to the "NSA in space" doc from 1975 is still "exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years" in the 2017 release (reason 3.3(b)(1) is provided, i.e. releasing the expected lifetime would "reveal information about the application of an intelligence source or method;").

Star One: also note that even for the POPPY series quite a number of facts are still classified. E.g., the final launch of the POPPY series (POPPY IX) was in December 1971, and the expected lifetime of this mission according to the "NSA in space" doc from 1975 is still "exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years" in the 2017 release (reason 3.3(b)(1) is provided, i.e. releasing the expected lifetime would "reveal information about the application of an intelligence source or method;").

There was an NRL list of their satellites that gave the lifetimes. One of the Poppy 9 satellites has "8 years" against it, rest blank. However, the Poppy History says the programme ended September 1977.

Here is the NRO Facebook post announcing the latest release now being discussed. The world sure has changed with the once Top Secret NRO now having a Facebook page...

National Reconnaissance Office 5 hrs ∑

The documents in the SIGINT Phase II release demonstrate the rich history of SIGINT in U.S. intelligence efforts and show the move from mere experimentation to a significant and relied-upon source of intelligence that has informed both tactical and strategic decisions since World War II.

While NRO has previously released records on the Agena flight control vehicle, this latest release includes almost all of the contents of the program -- demonstrating the significant role the Agena had in furthering the United States' work in developing and operating national reconnaissance satellites.

Logged

Best quote heard during an inspection, "I was unaware that I was the only one who was aware."

While NRO has previously released records on the Agena flight control vehicle, this latest release includes almost all of the contents of the program -- demonstrating the significant role the Agena had in furthering the United States' work in developing and operating national reconnaissance satellites.

Those Agena documents have been publicly available for a long time. I copied all or most of them back in the 1990s at Maxwell Air Force Base. The problem with that collection is that it stops around 1967 and Agena was operational for another 20 years. It gives a really good overview of the creation and early development of the program, but leaves out later modifications and improvements.

It says "Poppy II (2 Ball)". Does this mean that there was a second Poppy payload? The Lofti?

I think, there are mistakes in this list concerning the Grab/Poppy launches. This list omits the fifth Grab type satellite, which was lost in a Scout launch failure (26 April 1962). Apparently two launches of the five Grab launches were re-designated Poppy. According to "The SIGINT Satellite Story", these were the 4th and 5th launch.

One of my goals for the coming week (which I'm taking off of work) is to dig through some of the SIGINT documents and do some writing about them. I may do an article about the use of SIGINT satellites during the 1972 mining of the Haiphong Harbor in Vietnam. That's a new revelation.

There are also a bunch of interesting hints in the Butterworth history and I need to reread it to sort them out. For instance, one revelation was that the NRO used the small P-11 satellites to intercept communications from Soviet comsats. My guess is that the Molniya comsats had a big footprint, and so a US satellite flying underneath with a dish pointed up could suck up communications, although not for very long.

And the sky full of stars: American signals intelligence satellites and the Vietnam War

Quote

Early in the morning of May 9, 1972, four A-6 Intruders and six A-7 Corsairs launched off the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea steaming in the Pacific far off the coast of North Vietnam. The aircraft headed west and dove down low, keeping under five hundred feet. Underneath the planesí wings were naval mines, barrel-shaped devices that when dropped in the water would sink to the bottom and once activated could detonate upon detecting a passing ship. But the Coral Sea only had enough nosecones for about half the large Mk-52 magnetic mines carried by the Intruders, thus the mines created a lot of drag and slowed the aircraft down, making them vulnerable.